“Well I think our team is not playing well, obviously, but I see some good signs,” Ainge told WEEI on Thursday. “I thought (the Wednesday night loss to Memphis) was a step forward. We don’t have moral victories, but I thought our effort was better. We’re still out of sync offensively. I think defensively has been the biggest problem throughout the course of the year, but last night I think our problems came more with the halfcourt offense.”

So, it’s a step forward when you’re bad on only one end of the court? I guess.

But Ainge is not looking to shake up the roster just to shake up the roster. He wants to be patient.

“We’re just looking at what we’re capable of becoming,” Ainge said. “I think we haven’t found the right pieces. I think that Doc is probably going to tweak the lineup again and try to do some things different. We’ll just try to be patient with this team as long as we can.”

A panic move is almost never a smart move. If Boston is going to make a trade they need to find the right one so being patient is the right strategy.

Maybe with the return of Avery Bradley it will take some defensive pressure off Rajon Rondo, which will improve Rondo’s offensive play and things will start to look better. But even with that, this team looks a long way away from the level of play we saw from Boston in the playoffs last year, and it’s not clear if this roster can ever get back to that level.

That’s a fine sentiment. Saying it publicly is another matter. Not even Harden did that a couple years ago. He was recorded during a pregame team huddle.

There’s a fine line between self-fulfilling confidence and providing bulletin-board material to the opponent. There’s already some animosity between the teams stemming from the Stephen Curry-Harden MVP race in 2015, and it has bubbled since. No matter how harmless Capela’s remark might have been intended to be, it’ll be met contentiously in the Bay Area.

Oklahoma City traded for Victor Oladipo out of Orlando to be their third scorer, behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t exactly work out that way, Durant bolted town and when Westbrook went off Oladipo was looking for a place to fit in.

That place turned out to be the Pacers.

Oladipo has been playing like an All-Star this season with Indiana, and last week he was key in snapping Cleveland’s 13 game win streak, then turned around and dropped 47 points on Denver. For the week he averaged 35.7 points a game, shot 45.7 percent from three, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game.